School of Education Gets $10,000 Award For Initiatives

Middle Georgia State College’s School of Education was awarded $10,000 in federal planning funds to come up with ways to strengthen teacher preparation.

The award came in late August from the federal Transforming Educator Preparation and Race To The Top programs. School of Education faculty members will attend a Transforming Educator Preparation conference in Atlanta to help them flesh out ideas, which include:

• Working with the Bibb, Houston, Peach and Bleckley school systems to create year-long practice teaching opportunities for the School of Education’s student teachers. • Refining ways that student teachers work with the veteran teachers whose classrooms they are assigned to during student-teaching experiences. • Modifying how veteran teachers who work with student teachers are chosen and their specific roles in the student-teaching experience. • Developing quality training for veteran teachers and school leaders working with student teachers. • Strengthening knowledge among the School of Education’s faculty about Common Core and new testing instruments that will be used to assess veteran and student teachers.

The faculty members who wrote the proposal seeking the planning funds were Nancy Greene, Dr. Sumitra Himangshu, Dr. Vicki Luther and Dr. David Fuller (dean).